Technology today provides users with many different alternatives for acquiring information. For example, a user can participate in a social networking service to send and receive information to and from multiple participants, subscribe to one or more RSS feeds, view online photo albums, converse online using instant messaging, and the like. In some cases, the exchange of information can be confined to a set number of characters per exchange, such as in the case of a Short Message Service (SMS) communication. A sender of information may, at times, desire to send information that exceeds a set space allocated to an information exchange. For instance, the sender may wish to send a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) in addition to other information. However, in some cases, the URL alone may consume a large portion, if not all, of the set space. In such a case, a service, typically described as a URL shortener, can be employed to provide a shorter version of the URL, thus allowing for additional information to be included in the exchange.
Oftentimes, URL shorteners can randomize or garble the characters of a resultant URL, such that the resultant URL bears little or no resemblance to the original URL, or the information to which it points. As a consequence, a user who receives a shortened URL may have little or no insight as to the content associated with the shortened URL. Without navigating to the link, the user cannot determine any additional attributes associated with link, such as whether it points to a harmful site, an adult content site, an identified phishing site, or the like.